Re-discovering a 3 Year Old

This week I will be watching my friend's 2 little boys most days, and sometimes overnight (She had to pop back to the States to be there for a good friend, and her husband's schedule is a typical crazy military one). Her youngest boy just turned 3, and I've been reminded what an interesting age this is. True, my Alex was this age just a year ago, but it is incredible how much they change in that one year.

This is basically how I describe a 3 yr. old:

A 3 yr. old isn't a baby anymore - if you don't have any younger children, this is a hard realization, because you still think of them as your baby....but they're NOT. However they are still so cuddly and loveable at this age. They still have some baby fat leftover, and they are so darn deliciously CUTE!

A 3 yr. old talks more. Their little mouths are like the Energizer Bunny. And they say the funniest things, and pronounce words fantastically, like burpday (birthday) and sasslight (flashlight). They crack you up ALL the time, and there is never a dull moment.

A 3 yr. old has to be potty-trained. This is my least favorite thing. Simply put, I hate it. Girls aren't so bad, but boys.......grrrrr. And until they get the hang of it, you are still changing dirty diapers/pullups/underwear, not to mention messes in the bathroom, bed, and wherever else they have an accident....like maybe in the closet.

A 3 yr. old is a terrible-two, but with more intelligence, experience, and talents. Yeah, I always thought 3 was worse then 2 (with Cora as my only exception). Ooooooh, the things they get into, the messes they make, the tantrums they throw, the sassiness that spews from their mouths, the trouble they cause.....they are full on into asserting their independence. But almost ALL of it can be laughed at when looked back upon.....and sometimes in the middle of it:)

Here's a look back at my kids when they were 3 years old.

Alex

Alex, at 3, was DESTRUCTIVE and INOVATIVE (in his distruction).....maybe not quite as bad as when he was 2, but still going strong with things like coloring all over our wood floor with black permanent marker. He was completely obsessed with Spiderman, even though he's never seen the movies.

Madelyn

At 3, Madelyn was SASSY and DETERMINED. She cut her own hair several times, and this is the main reason why she has short hair and bangs, instead of long hair and no bangs like Cora (Cora never cut her own hair). She changed her clothes about 50 times a day. She was obsessed with Barbie.

J.T.

J.T. as a 3 year old can best be described as NEEDY and LOVING. He was obsessed with Woody and Buzz Lightyear. He was frightened of spiders to near insanity. His potty-training almost killed me.

Cora

Cora, at 3, was and INDEPENDENT. She was obsessed with her baby brother JT. She would drag him around by his feet, letting his head bump whatever was on the floor. She would "paint" on him with mud. She was constantly trying to hold him, squeeze him, and drive him crazy. And, for the first couple of years, she did all the talking for him too.

I hope I cherished my 3 year old's enough. It's cliche, but it goes by SO FAST! It's a little bit sad that we'll never have another one......but not sad enough to actually have another one;)

Do you remember your 3 year olds?

Is it Christmas yet?

Madelyn lost her first tooth. A couple of days later she yanked out a second one, even though it must have taken some doing, because it was NOT that loose:) The second tooth she decided to experiment with. We aren't into the whole tooth fairy thing at our house, and when she asked Joe if the tooth fairy is real, he said no. She decided she would put her tooth under her pillow anyway, just in case we were wrong - you'd be surprised how often she doesn't believe us;) Anyway, the next morning she came to me with the tooth and told me that she hadn't gotten any money. I appreciated her effort, so I gave her a quarter and said, "You don't need a tooth fairy because you have me." She was perfectly satisfied with that:)

Now she's got that cute smile kids get when they lose their two front teeth, and every time I look at her I think of that stupid Christmas song that I hate.....but that DOES make me excited for Christmas:)

Confessions

Copied from Katie and Mary, who I seem to copy a lot. But you know what they say about imitation.....;)

1. So, when we found out that we were moving to Korea this time, a friend of mine said, "Oh, I have a friend who is stationed there. You should check out her blog." And I did. for several months before we moved here, I was reading this lady's blog, and all about how she felt about Korea, and what she was up to over here - kind of psyching myself up to come. I never commented on her blog or anything - I figured I would never meet her anyway, because they were stationed down in Osan, and we were coming to Seoul. Anyway, I continued to read her blog once we moved here. Then her and her friend started a sewing blog which I really liked, and I started reading that one instead of her family blog. Anyway, when she had about 5 months left over here, I was called as the District Primary president, and her name was suggested as someone I might call as a counselor, and that's just what I did. But you know what? I NEVER told her that I knew who she was or that I read her blog. Why? I have no freakin' idea why. Totally weird of me, but there it is. I still read her sewing blog, and sometimes I want to comment, but I never do because I don't want her to know that I've been reading her blog this whole time and never told her. Is that the dumbest thing ever, or what? Hi, my name is Ruth, and I'm a creepy blog stalker. Hi Ruth


2. There's this woman who lives in our apartment complex. She's gorgeous. Long beautiful hair. Great body - I see her all the time in the gym. Always dressed cute. I am sure that she is just a lovely person on the inside too. HOWEVER, she walks soooooooo weird. It's like how you walk when you're 8 1/2 months pregnant - you know that waddle walk, where you walk with your feet spread further apart then normal because of the watermellon between your legs? That's exactly how she walks. It just completely throws me off whenever I see her. I'm full of curiosity, and I really want to know why she walks like that. Of course you can't just ask a stranger an inappropriate question like that, and she probably wouldn't really have an answer anyway. "I don't know why I walk like that, I just do, you weirdo!" It kind of reminds me of how we used to give one of my best friends a hard time because when she walks she doesn't really swing her arms - they just kind of hang by her sides. It's hilarious....and we love her;)



3. One thing that I really appreciate about Korea is how big they are into recycling. If we wanted to, we could get away with not recycling anything here because we live in military housing, but we recycle as much as we can, and I'm glad for the opportunity to do so. Also, I usually try not to be a wasteful person. I'm all about second-hand everything, including clothes, furniture, whatever. I don't leave the water running when I brush my teeth. I don't leave the air conditioner running non-stop, even though I don't have to pay for it. I follow my kids around the house all day and turn off all the lights that they have turned on (Joe thinks he's the only one who does this, but I beg to differ). You get the picture. Now, that being said, I have to admit that above my identity as a recycler and a non-waster is my identity as a not-so-great-housekeeper. If I had a bazillion things on a list of things I wanted to do, not one single one would have anything to do with cleaning. And if I had a list of things I hate to do, right up there at the top would be doing dishes. And if that hate list was a hit list, all my dishes would be dead. Soooooooo, I use paper plates and plastic silverware a lot around here. A LOT! The non-wasteful part of me feels really super uber-bad about this and says, "Ruth, you are just being lazy!" But then the recycle part of me pipes in and says, "Yeah, but you can recycle paper and plastic," and that's who I usually listen to.

4. A few of the many random thoughts that went through my head the other day when I got my hair cut and the lady washed my hair not once but twice before putting in conditioner (wow, look at that beautiful run-on sentence:) - Really? You're washing my hair twice? Is that really necessary? Do you do this with everyone? I don't think so, because last time I was here I didn't get my hair washed twice. When was the last time I washed my hair? I don't think it was that long ago. 2 days? 3 days? Do I have dandruff? Do I stink? You smell like garlic. Do you think I stink because I don't smell like garlic? Should I eat more garlic? Just kidding. Okay, I'm making too much of this, and your done anyway. I'll try not to be offended.

5. I hit a Korean lady with my car. I'm serious, I really did (admit it, when you read the title of this post, you were secretly hoping for a juicy humdinger like this one, weren't you?). Okay, okay, don't freak out, it's not as bad as it sounds. Let me just set up the scene for you. I was coming out of the front gate of our apartment complex, and I was going to turn right. I was stopped there, waiting for traffic, and I had pulled up so that the back part of my car was still part-way in the cross-walk, like this:
As I was about to pull out onto the road, I let my foot off the break at the same time that I looked up and gently nudged (yeah, that makes it sound better) into this young lady walking in front of my car with her boyfriend. I immediately put my foot back on the break, and started saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?!", even though my window was rolled up and she couldn't hear me. Even if she could have heard me, she might not have understood me if she didn't speak English. Anyway, she didn't say anything to me, not one word - she just gave me her very best dirty look (it was REALLY good, like she'd practiced it in the mirror at home.....or maybe like she'd just got hit by a car) and she kept on walking. Why in the world they chose to walk in front of my car instead of behind it (in the part of the cross-walk that my car was not on,) is beyond me, BUT I still should have looked to my right before I let off the break, and I felt horrible, BUT hello, crosswalk!

Hmmmmmm, should I actually hit "publish post" on this one? Oh well, here goes;)

Last Call

This kid started preschool. My last one, but I didn't cry;) Man alive, I love my kids!!!

Lagoonies

As promised, my last post from our vacation - LAGOON! This trip to Lagoon was made possible by my very dear friend Missy Haderlie, who gave us their free tickets when they couldn't use them themselves. Thank you!!!

All of my sisters were able to join us on this day, and we had SO MUCH FUN!:)

Sorry girls, but I had to post that one - come on, it's fantastic;) Marie, just be glad I didn't post the picture with your finger up your nose....I came soooooooo close.

Our kids look AWESOME!!! But the best part of Lagoon was the Sky Coaster, which I talked ALL of my sisters into going on with me. First up were Lorraine and Marie. They almost died.

Then Me and Rebekah - we're old pros, 'cause we did it together back when they first opened this baby about 10ish years ago. Going UP!

And we made it safely down.....screaming all the way;)

And here's a video.

Other crazy things I've done recently? Funny you should ask, because today I went on this.

The T-Express at Everland - remember how I said I was going to go on it? I did, and it was CRAZY GOOD! Remember how I said it had the the steepest drop in the world for a wooden roller coaster? It does.........and it's steep. Amazing. Oh, and I found this hilarious Korean music video about this roller coaster - you totally have to check it out here:)

The Other Stuff

So this post is about the other stuff we did on vacation, but I don't want you to think that because they don't each get a post of their own, that means that they weren't as great as Box Canyon or Delta. Mostly it's just because there are less pictures....just sayin'

1. Palisade State Park is a favorite of mine. I remember camping there as a kid, and playing in the resevoir. They also happen to have my favorite golf course;) We took the kids to play in the water there, and they also loved playing on the "beach", if that's what you want to call it.

2. So I had this crazy goal to run a 5k while I was in Utah - my brother-in-law, John, started getting into triatholons, and encouraged everyone in the family to join the "fun";) He found one in Utah during the time that we were going to be in Utah, and he said that we could do it as a team - Joe on the bike, me on the run, and John's daughter Hannah on the swim. Soooooo, I've been training for it since May. Before that I had not run since 1994 - I'm serious! And that was a for a P.E. class I took the first year of college. Me and running never got along. Then this really crazy thing happened - I started to like running. Totally weird. By the time we left for Utah I had gotten up to 2 1/2 miles, but I figured I could walk as much as I needed to. My goal was simply to finish the 5k (not run the whole way, and not worry about my time). A few of days after we got to Utah, I went running with my sister one morning. I had wondered if the change in altitude would affect me much, but I hadn't worried too much about it - I should have worried, because it KICKED MY BUTT! Wow, I could not believe the difference. I felt like I was in big trouble, but I knew I still had a couple of weeks to get ready for it and adjust. A few days after that we were down in Manti at Joe's parents' house, and John was staying there too. He mentioned that the stake there was having a 5k the next day - before I knew it, he had talked me into doing it, even though I didn't feel ready at all. Joe road his bike along side me, giving me support and updating me on my distance. I ran and walked, ran and walked, ran and walked..... Around the half-way mark I felt like I was done - I was dying! I suggested we veer off the stake's chosen course, and I'd just run the rest of the way home to Joe's parents house. By the time we got to the house I'd gone 2 miles and I was feeling way better. I thought, I can do this, and I kept running past the house. Joe was surprised - "You're going to keep going?" "Yep!" He cheered me on the rest of the way, and I completed the full 3.1 miles! I felt soooooooo proud of myself:) Here I am, all red-faced and happy.

3. I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again - Utah has the BEST grass. I always spend a lot of time in Utah walking with my bare feet on the grass, or lying on my back on the soft grass and looking up into the sky. For some reason, this time I was a bit obsessed with the clouds - they all just looked so amazing, and I took a lot of pictures of clouds. Taking pictures of clouds seems a bit ridiculous to me, but that's what I did, so there.

4. I LOVE camping, but I just don't enjoy camping in humidity, and we don't have our tent with us here anyway. However, even when we were in Texas, and had our tent, I still didn't want to go camping there. Joe went a couple of times with the scouts, and I went with the Young Women (day time only, because I had a brand new baby), and it was not a pleasant thing. Yucky, sticky humidity. I LOVE camping in Utah, and I'm so glad that we got a chance to go. I realized that my kids had NEVER been camping before. I felt like slapping myself. I didn't, but I definitely deserved it. We went to Hobble Creek Canyon above Springville UT, and it made me want to move there so bad. Are there many things better than falling asleep to the sound of a river? Not many.In the pictures above, Alex is sporting a swollen eye from a mosquito bite. Shortly afterwards he got stung by a wasp on the head. The rest of the vacation he was telling everyone about it.

5. Playing in the rain - it's so polluted here that I don't want my kids playing in the rain here. Which is just terrible for my kids, because they love playing in the rain, and I used to let them do it all the time in Texas, so they miss it. Am I just being silly? I don't know. So I let them play in the rain in Utah, even though there was thunder - but after one particularly loud one, Joe called us all in, and I called him a buzz-kill:) Safety First!

And by the by, there was one thunder storm while we were there that had the loudest thunder I've ever heard. If you know me, then you might know that I've NEVER woken up at night because of a thunder storm - never. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, "Wow, did you hear that thunder storm last night? It was so loud, I couldn't sleep." And I'm like, "Oh, there was thunder?" But not this time - one second I was dead asleep, and the next second I was sitting bolt upright in bed, listening to the the loudest thunder I EVER heard! It shook the house, and rattled my bones. I gotta say, it's a scarily awesome way to wake up.

6. Playing with cousins....it is a sad, sad, sad thing that we don't live closer to cousins.

My kids have great cousins, and magnificant aunts and uncles, who we all miss terribly. We wish we had more time with them every time we go to Utah - there is NEVER enough time! One night the kids got out some old lazer tag equipment that belongs to their uncles. Grandma bought a million batteries, and we loaded them in so the kids could play.

Radical Man!

This is my nephew Jack.

We call him Jack-Jack for short;) I am completely and totally enamored with this kid, and he probably doesn't know me from beans - but when I first saw him on our vacation he ran up with a huge smile on his face and gave me the biggest hug - LOVE! One day Grandma made some peanut butter bars and the kids came running in to tell us that Jack had eaten the chocolate off the top. I went into the kitchen and found this.

The robot did it! (I'm sorry, I just thought that was funny)

7. Visiting Temple Square is always a treat for me when we go to Utah, whether it's the Conference Hall, the Temple Visitor's Center, the Tabernacle, the Joseph Smith bldg., the Church History Museum, or seeing the Christmas lights. This time we visited the revamped Children's part of the Church History Museum. If you haven't been lately, you should go.

They have this whole dancing part where you can dress up, and then you watch a video of a woman, man, or both dancing, and try to follow the moves. It was a big hit.






8. I caught Alex rockin' out all by himself.


9. Another day, I went outside and caught my dad doing this with the kids:)


In that video he got Alex around the neck, but mostly he was getting the kids down around the waste, so it really wasn't dangerous:) This is so completely hilarious to me, and also quite impressive, considering that is just a regular soft rope (a real lasso, or lariat, is made from stiff rope, which makes it easier to keep the noose open). I mentioned in my last post that my dad grew up on a farm, and this was something he learned way back them. Look at him going strong at the ripe old age of 68 - I LOVE MY DAD!!!

10. I don't really have a number 10, I just couldn't leave it at number 9. However, I do have one more thing to post about our trip - Lagoon! - so I guess we could count that as number 10;)

Blast From the Past

Joe's mom grew up on a farm in Sutherland, which is just outside of Delta. Her dad was a cattle rancher, raising his own cattle as well as taking care of other people's cattle, and raising crops to feed his own cattle as well as others. When he got older his son, Joe's Uncle Howard, took over. Real cowboys:) When Joe was younger, his family lived in a trailer on the property for several years. His dad was a teacher there, and everyone else helped out on the farm. Now Uncle Howard is retired himself, and he leases out most of his acres to other farmers. I'd been hearing stories about Delta for years, but had never been out there. I was so excited to go out there, and it did not disappoint - it was another of my favorites of our trip. Yep, Delta. Who knew, right?:)

Our itinerary included a stop at the cheese factory (no pictures).

Horseback riding on Red.

Making new friends.

Tractor ride.

Visiting Fort Deseret.

Collecting sunstones at Sunstone Knoll.

Riding the 4-wheeler.

A weenie roast around the fire, and reminiscing about "the old days".

And a beautiful sunset to end it.

It was a great day, and I can't wait to go back. Uncle Howard reminds me a lot of my Great Uncle Asay. He had a farm in Wellington Utah, and when I was a kid we'd go out to visit him every Memorial Day (which was my favorite holiday, next to Christmas, because I loved visiting Uncle Asay so much). I loved watching Cora with her Great Uncle Howard - she really took to him - it was like watching myself, and I was flooded with old memories while making new ones.

I also thought alot about my dad. He also grew up on a farm in Wellington, but his dad had a stroke when my dad was a teenager, and they had to sell the farm. That's when they moved to American Fork, and they've been there ever since. I asked my dad if he thought he would have ended up being a farmer if his dad hadn't had that stroke, and he reckoned he probably would have been.

It's crazy how drastically our lives can change, from the paths we think we are going to go down, to the ones we actually take. 13 years ago, Joe NEVER would have thought that he'd be in the military (he originally planned on getting a degree in mechanical engineering), but here we are in Korea, on a completely different path. Can you tell that going to Utah makes me sentimental? Plus, I just watched the season 4 finale of Doctor Who, and Donna Noble took a right turn instead of a left turn, and it changed the whole universe!;) Not a Doctor Who fan? Hmmmm, that's a shame.